American Admiral John Aquilino told India-Russia are old partners, we need to understand. John Aquilino, who is going to be the Chief of Indo Pacific Command, will look on Sino-Russia.
Admiral John Aquilino, who is going to become the Chief of the Indo-Pacific Command of the Washington US Army, lashed out at the US Congress for its ties with India-Russia. He said throughout a hearing in the US Congress to confirm his name that the US needs to understand that India has an old relationship with Russia for security cooperation and military equipment. He also advocated not to impose restrictions on the purchase of India's S-400 missile system from Russia.
During the hearing, US Senator Jean Shaheen questioned whether we should ban India if he buys the S-400? In response, Admiral John Aquilino said that he would try to drive India away from Russia instead of resorting to sanctions to buy weapons. Aquilino said that I think I will leave this decision to the policymakers. I think we should acknowledge where we stand with India and I think the move to bestow alternatives is much better.
He said that India is truly a great partner and as we saw in the recent quad talks, I think the importance of India and other countries in the quad will increase. Our relationship is balanced. However, India has longstanding ties with Russia for security cooperation and military equipment. If my name is confirmed, I will work towards motivating India to buy American weapons.
On a question by Senator Debra Fischer, who praised the US military cooperation with India, Aquilino said that the work or efforts India has made to protect its northeast border amidst the deadlock with China is remarkable. On the recent activities of China, he said that these activities have underlined the dangers that are being generated by China for all countries including India. The Admiral stated that military relations between the US and India are at their best and that the US is steadily increasing matters of bilateral and multilateral cooperation, exercises, high-level joint operations ,and cooperation at the top level.
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